Double Time

She laughed. “Yeah, I can’t wait to do my first show in two weeks. I’m getting anxious.”

“I meant are you ready to go onstage tonight?”

She turned around in his arms and gave him a questioning look.

“Brian’s going to be late, so I thought you could stand in for him for a couple of songs until he gets here.”

“No way! I haven’t rehearsed. I’d make a total fool of myself.”

“You know all of Sinners’ songs. You’ll do great.”

“Trey, I can’t do this.”

“I already told Sed you’d do it. Don’t make me look like an ass.”

Her eyebrows drew together and she pinned him with a heated stare. “You’re being one, why not look like one?”

Trey tilted his head just so and held her gaze with his. “Please.”

“Don’t ‘please’ me, Trey Mills. That look will not get you everything you want.”

“Even if I want to please you?”

Her lips twisted as she tried to suppress a smile, and he knew she was going to cave. “You always please me,” she said.

“So you’ll do it?” he pressed.

“Sure. Why not?”

He kissed her neck and murmured in her ear, “You’re getting the extra-large tongue stud tonight, Reagan Elliot.”

“You’re supposed to sweeten the deal before I agree to your terms, not after.”

“Are you objecting?”

She wrapped both arms around him and stared up into his eyes. “Absolutely not.”

“I guess we’d better let the stage crew know there’s been a slight change in the show tonight.”

Eric tapped Trey on the shoulder. “Uh, Trey, I think Reagan is great and all, but I don’t think this is the best idea.”

Trey lifted an eyebrow at him. “What would be your best idea?”

“To wait for Brian.”

“They’re going to hate me, aren’t they?” Reagan said. “I’d hate me if I was waiting to see Master Sinclair perform and some tomboy stepped out on stage in his place.”

“They’ll love you, Reagan. I guarantee it.”

***

Reagan didn’t feel right borrowing Brian’s guitar without his permission, but his equipment was already tuned up and synced to the amplifiers, so switching out guitars now would have put undue stress on the sound crew. She was excited to get her first real taste of the limelight, but she could hear the restlessness of the crowd. Uneasiness settled in the pit of her stomach. What was she doing here? And why did she always do exactly what Trey wanted her to do? She couldn’t even get mad at him about it. Not when she so eagerly did his bidding and then benefited from his happiness. Because a happy Trey was a generous Trey.

Trey rubbed her back and smiled at her. “You ready?”

“Are you sure about this? I don’t know ‘Betrayed’ very well. It hasn’t been out very long.”

“You played it perfectly five minutes ago.”

Yeah, but there hadn’t been forty-thousand eyeballs on her five minutes ago. Rebekah gave them their cue to enter the stage, and Trey gave Reagan an encouraging squeeze before he climbed the steps and crossed the stage to its far side. Jace gave her a set of knuckles in the shoulder and followed Trey. Sed, who stood behind her, nudged her toward the stage. She found the taped X on the stage where she was supposed to stand in front of Brian’s stomp pad. She knew the notes but had no idea which amplifier she was supposed to switch to and when. This was going to be a disaster. Trey owed her a lot more than a session with his talented tongue to make up for this.

Eric thudded the bass drum and Reagan jumped as if it was a shotgun blast. Jace’s bass line entered and she found proper fingering on the strings of Brian’s guitar. Her head started swimming and she realized she had forgotten to breathe. She gasped for air and played the first chord. Bright lights hit her in the face and she winced, but she somehow kept playing. She’d been fooling herself into thinking she was half as good as Master Sinclair. Every slight variation in tone made her cringe. No one else seemed to notice. The crowd, what little of it she could see with the blinding lights in her face, was enthusiastic for the music. They didn’t seem to notice that someone else was playing the role of their favorite guitarist. Sed entered the stage and the audience roared their approval. He paced the stage as he sang, lifting his hands to the roof and getting the crowd to mimic his motions.

Reagan glanced across the stage at Trey, who nodded at her in encouragement with a huge smile on his face. Okay, this wasn’t so bad. She could do this. Her eyes began to adjust to the bright lights, but the heat coming off them was brutal. Sweat slickened her lower back and the nape of her neck. When the solo approached, she wasn’t sure if she should mimic Brian and head for the ego riser at the front of the stage or just stay put and hope the crowd didn’t notice Brian had sprung a set of boobs since his last performance.

Trey headed for the front of the stage and nodded his head in that direction to get Reagan’s feet moving from where they’d rooted themselves into the stage. She stubbed her toe on a foot pedal but somehow managed not to fall flat on her face as she joined Trey on the ego riser. He leaned against her, just as he did when he played with Brian, and an undeniable connection flowed between them. She’d never experienced anything like it. The feeling of oneness was even more pronounced than the one she felt when they made love. She closed her eyes and let the music carry her away with Trey. She might have been lost in that sweet nirvana forever if a shoe hadn’t whacked her dead in the forehead. She faltered and stepped back off the riser instinctually. If Sed hadn’t been there to steady her, she would have fallen on her ass. She finished the solo near the back of the stage. Getting hit with a shoe had hurt, but more than that, she felt utterly humiliated. Someone nudged her arm and she opened her eyes to Trey’s concerned expression.

“Are you okay?” he mouthed.

She didn’t know. She’d suffered far worse injuries falling off skateboards, but this had stung more than her pain receptors. It had stung her pride. The fans didn’t want to listen to her play. She didn’t blame them. And she was certain Exodus End’s fans would react the same way when they saw her trying to replace Max.

The song ended and, without waiting for instructions or looking at anyone, Reagan removed Brian’s guitar. She handed it to Jake on her way backstage. She could hear Sed talking to the crowd, but she wasn’t really interested in his words. He said something about kicking the ass of whoever threw that shoe. And a bright new talent in the guitar world. Someone to watch out for. Someone to throw shoes at, he meant.